Innovate

As an educator, I'm used to learning new things all the time. One thing for certain is change...you can't stop it, but you can embrace it. Innovation comes with change and when people are given the opportunity to think outside the box, new and creative things happen. Just because something has been done the same way for ever, does not mean it's the ONLY way nor the BEST way necessarily. I also realize every day that adults are not the only ones who are teachers, so are students. When adults are open to learning from the students, we both benefit.

As a board member, my favorite meetings are when students are present. I believe it is critical for us to include the voices of those we are making the decisions for, which means student voices are necessary.

During our strategic planning time, we included students in helping create our mission and core values. In fact, they're the ones who added the word EXCEL in our mission statement.